The NBC show dropped 46% from last season's one hour season opener. Which reminds me, Heroes should never be two hours long. Last night's first hour was boring as hell, and then the second hour was more interesting but still muddy, frustrating, and all over the place.

In other ratings news, Housedid really well, CBS came in second, and Dancing with the Stars didn't do as well as people thought it would (or it usually does).

The fifth season premiere of Supernatural bows on September 10. I haven't watched the show since the end of season one, but based on the preview below and these clips over at Airlock Alpha, I really have to start watching this show again.

If you didn't know that there was a show on The CW called 90210 and someone showed you this clip, you'd probably think you were watching some early 90s soft core porn flick on Cinemax. Is all of the talk about "big and meaty" and "balls" and "wetness" supposed to be clever?

On Monday, NBC won the night, with its lineup of Deal Or No Deal (9.6 million viewers), America's Toughest Jobs (6.5), and Dateline (6.2), but FOX won in the all-important 18 to 49 demographic with its lineup of the Sarah Connor Chroniclesseason premiere and a new episode of Prison Break. The Sarah Connor Chronicles grabbed 6.3 million viewers, while Prison Break did even better, with 6.5 million. CBS beat NBC in the 18-49 demo with their lineup of comedy repeats. ABC was fourth and The CW was fifth.

Of all the Law & Orders -- and I watch all three -- Special Victims Unit is the one that indulges in more character-oriented storytelling. That's all for the better, as far as I'm concern, whether that means going inside Olivia's mind as she's struggled with knowing she was a child of rape, or suffering when Elliot's marriage was on the rocks.

When the new season of SVU returns on Tuesday, September 23, we'll be getting some more character development with a special appearance by Emmy winner James Brolin.

Richard Belzer, who plays Detective Munch, mentioned Brolin's guest appearance to TV Guide, saying, "He's a great guy; he's got a big fight scene with Stabler, so that should be fun." Brolin is playing a former military man who shares a past connection with Elliot. Hmm...was Christopher Meloni ever on Pensacola: Wings of Gold? Brolin, by the way, turns 68 this Friday, July 18. Remember when he was the hot, young motorcycle-riding Dr. Steve Kiley on Marcus Welby, M.D.?

National Geographic's long-running series Explorer returns with a new season on August 8 at 8:00 p.m. The series will once again delve into interesting facets of science, technology and nature.

The special I'm most looking forward to is "Science of Dogs" on August 15. This episode will focus on the world of science dogs: you know, dogs who wear lab coats and work in laboratories, perfecting different types of kitten poison, that sort of thing.

Three top A&E reality series, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Gene Simmons Family Jewels and Driving Force will kick off new seasons in April.

The second season of Gene Simmons Family Jewels kicks off April 1 with two back-to-back episodes starting at 9:00 p.m. In "Gene's Big Mouth," Gene meets his newly-adopted infant son for the first time. In the second episode, "Face Off," Gene and his wife Shannon both undergo cosmetic surgery at the same time.

This morning, ABC announced the new slate of celebrities that will be participating in this upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars, which starts on Monday, March 19.

Some of the rumored selections, like Ian Ziering of 90210, and Billy Ray Cyrus of Hanna Montana, and Paul McCartney's bitter one-legged ex, Heather Mills, were right on the money. The other participants? Well, how would you like to see Big Pussy cutting a rug? Thaaat's right, Vincent Pastore is on board. So is basketball great Clyde Drexler, Olympic gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, former Entertainment Tonight host Leeza Gibbons, former supermodel Paulina Porizkova, former *NSYNCer Joey Fatone, Miss USA 2004 Shandi Finnessey, and boxer Laila Ali (yes, she's Muhammad Ali's daughter).

The full press release is after the jump. And the full story and photos are on the Good Morning America web site.

It's almost time to warm up the barbecue, invite your friends over, open a few beers, and then tell everyone to get the hell out of your house so you can watch South Park. That's right, the eleventh season of the show kicks off March 7 at 10:00pm on Comedy Central.

I'm ninety-nine percent sure I'll be reviewing the episodes again, since I know a lot of you love to talk about the show. South Park has never been timid in its satire, but last season it really gave a beat down to Al Gore; 9/11 conspiracy theories; Oprah and James Frey; censorship through intimidation; science vs. religion; and Scientology (again). I think season ten marked some of the best episodes of the series so far, and I can't wait to see what Matt and Trey have on tap for season eleven.

"Will Discovery Channel be airing another season of Deadliest Catch this year?"

The answer, dear Mr. Werner, is "yes." In fact, the third season is currently being filmed and will kick off on April 3, 2007. Make sure you tattoo that information on your body like that guy in Memento, it's a great way to remember things. That's why I have "buy eggs and milk" inked on my inner thigh right now.

Deadliest Catch is a documentary series that began in 2005. It follows six fishing vessels as they fish for crab in the Bering Sea and face serious injury or death due to the rough conditions. The crew not only consists of fisherman who have been on several expeditions, but also "greenhorns" who are experiencing the job for the first time.

What can you say about Inside the Actor's Studio that hasn't already been said by a hundred parodies and humorists' impersonations? It will always be galling to hear hack actors talk about their "craft" and to hear James Lipton wax poetic about the farcial tour de force that is Half-Baked.

The show, however, is inspired precisely because it doesn't make the distinction between "movie stars" and "actors" in the way that most viewers do. It's like Charlie Rose meets Entertainment Weekly - celebrity journalism that aims for something higher.

Inside the Actor's Studioreturns to Bravo for a new season on December 18th. In this outing of the 12-time Emmy-nominated series, James Lipton sits down with Eddie Murphy, Matt Damon, Forest Whitaker and Kyra Sedgwick. You can almost hear Lipton's careful intonation, "And, then, you turned your attention to outer space - from fat suit to space suit - with The Adventures of Pluto Nash."

Great news, King of the Hill fans: after a long wait FOX has finally announced that the eleventh season of the animated series will kick off on January 21 at 7:30 pm. The tenth season finale ended with Lucky and Luanne getting engaged and Luanne becoming pregnant, but according to the press release the eleventh season opener will focus mainly on Animal Control trying to rescue Bobby's pet snake from the toilet and causing a city-wide panic in the process. King of the Hill, despite always being stuck in a timeslot where even fans like myself can sometimes forget about it, is still consistently smart and funny even after being on the air for over a decade. I would love to see it bumped ahead into the primetime lineup with The Simpsons and the rest of FOX's animated shows, but I can deal with the lousy timeslot as long as FOX keeps bringing it back.

Okay, apparently I need to have my eyeballs polished because I've been checking out the Adult Swim schedule grid every day for several weeks and I just now noticed that new episodes of Moral Orel are scheduled to start November 12 at 12:15 am (technically Monday morning). Frankly, I'm surprised to see it back so soon, but I'm definitely not complaining. Will I review these episodes like I did last season? I haven't decided yet, but either way I'll definitely be watching them. Based on the schedule, it looks like Adult Swim will be airing the episodes out of order just like they did last season. Also, since they tend to shuffle their lineup around with little warning, the premiere date could possibly change, so I'll try to stay on top of things for my fellow fanatics.

Big huzzahs to reader John Geezer, who sent us a link to this fantastic promo for the upcoming new season of Futurama. The promo was created by Speed Bump Studios in an effort to get a job doing these for Comedy Central. It features a CGI version of Bender walking into a random house, drinking the owners' wine, and stealing their candlesticks. "Hello, peasants!" he yells as he walks in. Really great stuff.

Speed Bump also provides a clip showing the computer rough-draft of the CGI Bender, and an opportunity to download the Bender model (for fun only, of course). Good stuff, and a fun way to close out the week.

If you recall, our very own Tom Biro was approached by the folks at ABC's The Bachelor to think about being the object of bachelorettes' desire on the upcoming season of the show. Apparently, they were looking for a "professional," and they managed to find him via his LinkedIn account. However, Biro told our cousins over at Netscape that he was perfectly happy in his current relationship and was not going to pursuse this "opportunity."

So, because the blogger disappointed them, they decided to go straight to the world of Italian nobility. According to Zap2It, the new Bachelor is Lorenzo Borghese, the owner of a cosmetics business and the son of an Italian prince and princess. And the bachelorettes? Seems to be the usual collection of cute women with varying careers, age range 22-30. Among them is a doctor, a couple of lawyers (one from the town I live in!), and, most interestingly, a beer chemist. Wow. Pretty and she knows how to make beer! If I were the Bachelor, the contest would be over right there.